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Terence William (Terry) Dowling, born at Lystra Private Hospital (21 March 1947, Sydney, New South Wales), is an Australian writer, freelance journalist, award-winning critic, editor, game designer and reviewer. He writes primarily speculative fiction and dark fantasy though he considers himself an "imagier" - one who imagines, a term which liberates his writing from the constraints of specific genres.

Dowling was educated at Boronia Park Public School, Sydney, 1952—59; Hunters Hill High School, Sydney, 1960—64; and Sydney Teachers' College, 1965—66, following which he was conscripted for national service as an infantryman and admin clerk during the Vietnam War. During these years Dowling wrote poetry and songs and some fiction. After teaching for a year at Horsley Park Primary School in Sydney, Dowling matriculated to Sydney University, where he won a scholarship to complete his BA (Hons) in English Literature and Archaeology, then won a research award via which he completed his M.A. (first class Honours) in English Literature. His Masters thesis discussed J. G. Ballard and Surrealism.

During his nine-year stint at university he continued songwriting and performing with rock band The Many Moods of Albert (1966—67), worked as an actor and songwriter with Sydney's Pact Theatre (1972—78), made appearances on ABC television on some children's programs in the late 1970s and then appeared in an eight-year stint as a musician and songwriter in regular guest appearances on the long-running Australian Broadcasting Corporation children's television program Mr Squiggle and Friends(1979—1982).. The ABC also financed production of seven of his songs for Amberjack, a musical about a stranded time-traveller (They were broadcast in 1977 on the ABC/2FC radio program "Talking Point"). Sections of the lyrics from Amberjack will be included as linking pieces between the stories in Dowling's 2009 collection from Subterranean Press.

Dowling had begun buying science fiction magazines in the early 1960s and was influenced early by writers such as J.G. Ballard, Jack Vance, Ray Bradbury, Cordwainer Smith and the Horwitz horror anthologies edited by Charles Higham. He was also highly influenced by the Surrealist painters, particularly Salvador Dali, Paul Delvaux, Max Ernst and Giorgio de Chirico. Dowling's earliest published stories were "Illusion of Motion" and "Oriental on the Murder Express", both published in Enigma, the magazine of SUSFA, the Sydney University SF Society, and "Shade of Encounter" in the second issue of Science Fiction: A Review of Speculative Literature, on which Dowling became assistant editor and short-notice book-reviewer and eventually co-editor (with Dr Van Ikin). Dowling did critical work and continued to play with bands...Temenos (rock band, 1970—72); Gestalt (acoustic band, 1972—75) after taking a teaching position at a Sydney business college. At least one of his rock bands used to play for the patients at a mental hospital at Bedlam Point, near his home - a source for 'Cape Bedlam', location of the Madhouse in the Tom Rynosseros cycle.

He wrote a science fiction play called "The Tunnel", and eventually sold his first professional story to Omega Science Digest ("The Man Who Walks Away Behind the Eyes", in the May/June 1982 issue).

In the 1980s Dowling met Jack Vance after doing critical work on him (Vance later named a planet after him in his novel Throy); Fritz Leiber; and Harlan Ellison, with whom he travelled in the Australian outback. Dowling went on to edit The Essential Ellison.

He has been a communications lecturer, from 1976; freelance journalist (1987—88); genre reviewer for The Australian, from 1989.Dowling has been Guest of Honour at three Australian science fiction conventions (including Syncon 87 and Swancon 15) and regularly tutors workshops on fantasy writing at venues including the New South Wales Writers' Centre and Sydney University's Centre for Continuing Education.

He was awarded a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Western Australia in 2006 for his mystery/dark fantasy/horror novel, Clowns at Midnight, and accompanying dissertation The Interactive Landscape: New Modes of Narrative in Science Fiction, in which he examined the computer adventure game as an important new area of storytelling.

Dowling holds the distinction of having more stories than any other single writer selected for the anthology series Year's Best Horror and Fantasy (edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling during its twenty-year run from 1988 to 2008.

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Terry Dowling", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0